


Disconnection

by FemaleJaeger



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Galra Keith (Voltron), Gen, Gender-neutral pronouns for Pidge, Kinda, Sickfic, Spoilers, Whump, its a genfic, its not that deep fam, listen i only tagged the main relationship portrayed it isnt even romantic, lol do people still tag that
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-31
Updated: 2018-10-31
Packaged: 2019-08-14 01:00:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,317
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16483073
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FemaleJaeger/pseuds/FemaleJaeger
Summary: On the way back to Earth, Team Voltron finds themselves in a situation they didn't see coming. How will they handle a threat they can't see?





	Disconnection

**Author's Note:**

> This was inspired by the lovely art done by [Lynevaren](https://lynvaren.tumblr.com/post/177947242432/i-feel-like-if-keith-were-to-lose-control-of-his%22) on tumblr!  
> Also I was trying to write it in time for Keith's birthday but then I drew a thing and it's still October, right?

It had been a long week, if it had even been a week. Traveling through space messed with one’s sense of time. At the very least, the metaphorical week had been long. After battling their way off of every planet they had been to recently, the crew was exhausted.

“I feel like my lion,” Hunk slumped down in his pilot’s chair.

“Same,” Lance responded after falling into his own seat.

“I know, I know,” Keith answered, he couldn’t deny his own aching muscles and the tension in his shoulders.

“It’s been a tough time,” Shiro offered through the comms but his platitude fell on deaf ears.

They all knew it was tough and that they couldn’t count on it getting any easier any time soon. The universe always seemed to make things worse before it got even close to okay.

“Maybe the next planet will offer some kind of respite?” Allura suggested.

Pidge groaned.

“Sounds like a plan,” Keith replied. It’s not like they had anything else to do but respond to distress signals on their voyage home.

Before the castleship was destroyed, Pidge, with the help of Coran, downloaded a very basic list of distress signals spanning the known universe. Since Zarkon’s rule had been consistent for 10,000+ years there was no shortage of distress. Once the oldest broadcasts were removed (assuming there wasn’t any one to contact now) and mapping a course towards Earth, the team agreed to address the signals that they could on their way. Little had they known just how far the Galran empire had stretched towards their home.

“Can we just… I don’t know, fight from a distance next time?” Hunk bargained.

“Yes,” Pidge answered and continued sarcastically, “if you figured out how to charge the lions.”

It was Hunk’s turn to groan. As of right now, there wasn’t any way for the team to recharge the lions and they barely made it from one system to the next, getting by on the small amount of saved solar energy. Unfortunately, the lions weren’t built for processing solar energy so it took a long time to accrue even the smallest amount of power and as it has been going lately, the paladins didn’t get a lot of time on each of the planets.

“Pidge,” Keith started. It wasn’t the first time they had had this conversation and everyone knew it wouldn’t be the last.

“I know, sending the coordinates for the next world,” almost immediately the coordinates popped up on the dashboard of all the lions.

“Thank you,” Keith answered trying to keep up morale even if just simple courtesies.

“Mmm,” Pidge tiredly responded.

“Do we know anything about the next place?” Lance asked, still curious about the undiscovered.

Allura replied first, “It doesn’t sound familiar to me, Coran?”

“Hmm, I don’t think I recognize it but maybe once I see it?” Coran submitted. For all his knowledge, it just wasn’t realistic that Coran would know everything about every planet and civilization in the universe.

“I guess the only way to know is to get going,” Lance urged, starting up the Red lion and the rest of the paladins started doing the same.

For the most part, travel was usually pretty quiet save for the random announced thoughts of Lance and the occasional story provided by Coran. Both usually led to questions to try to understand the alien thought process and also whatever hoopla Coran talks about.

Over time, the sound of Lance questioning the ethics of foreign civilizations with Coran began to feel reassuring. When one or the other was too tired to start up a conversation, that was when it was entirely too quiet and the void of space started to creep in to the crew’s minds.

Keith didn’t want to admit it at first but Lance just being Lance did wonders to keep spirits up. Pidge took out their frustration by joking with Lance. Lance always knew exactly what Hunk needed to hear as comfort after hard missions or to boost the man’s confidence. The interactions between Lance and Coran made Allura laugh because Lance’s questions were usually things that she herself had asked when she was younger or were so absurd that to listen to Coran to try to explain the absurdity was funny. Even Shiro enjoyed the mindless chatter as it distracted him from some of the darker thoughts he had been having recently (You know why).

Even if Keith didn’t actively participate in the conversations, it was nice to sit back and not have to worry about the team breaking down and fighting. Keith’s new role of leader and also peace keeper was sometimes tougher than the missions. Growing up it had been Keith fending for himself and then eventually Shiro looking out for him but he had never really gotten along with kids his own age. Voltron was the first time he really had to depend on others and even that had a rocky start. It took a lot of patience and focus to regroup. Also, it was surprisingly tiring to keep up appearances of a “fearless leader” like Shiro had been.

Shiro offered advice and tried to corral the paladins when he could but he was still dealing with the after-shock of transferring consciousness from the astral plane to a clone's body.

The next planet ended up being just like what the team had been dealing with recently. The Galra had turned the citizens into slaves to mine the natural resources. Unlike the last planet, this planet appeared to be heavily occupied. The planet had the tale-tell signs of only just recently being overrun and that seemed to be the reason for the strong presence.  

The usual plan was Keith, Pidge and Lance storm from one side. Shiro, Hunk and Allura to storm from the other side of the headquarters. Krolia and Coran tap into the power supply to disrupt what they can. Thanks to Pidge’s smaller stature and Allura’s ability to shapeshift, they could more easily scout ahead for the respective teams. Keith and Shiro handled hand to hand combat while Lance and Hunk handled ranged attacks. Everyone was to get in and out as quickly as possible. They had run this maneuver many times before without problems and this was no exception. It went off without a hitch, the sentries inside the base were suppressed and thanks to Krolia and Coran, contact with the other bases on the planet were cut off.

“How many other bases are there?” Lance asked as they all regrouped in the main room.

“Two of this size and three outposts,” Pidge answered reading the downloaded map off of the hologram above their wrist. “The outpost to this base isn’t too far.”

“Ok, lead the way,” Keith suggested.

The team scattered so as to not draw attention and followed Pidge through the thick cropping of vegetation. The jog to the outpost wasn’t long. Shiro and Keith broke down the front door and quickly nullified the few sentries.

“It’s weird that it’s only been sentries, right?” Hunk observed.

“You’re right,” Shiro confirmed.

“Maybe the Galra had to be somewhere more important?” Lance offered trying to lighten the mood. It was undoubtedly disconcerting there weren’t any Galra here. Lance opened his visor to get a better look around.

“Lance! We talked about this,” Shiro scolded, “You have to keep your visor closed when we visit new planets.”

“It’s alright Shiro,” Pidge jumped in to defend, “There isn’t anything inherently dangerous in the atmosphere.” They opened their own visor to prove their point.

Hunk followed suit and took a deep breath, “Ugh, what is that smell?”

Allura took her helmet off to smell for herself, “Hm, it’s somehow familiar…”

“Yeah, it smells like a mix between a sewer and a dirty diaper,” Lance prompted.

Keith scrunched his nose just imagining the smell.

“What’s a matter Keith? Got a sensitive nose?” Lance teased.

“No, that just sounds disgusting,” Keith answered.

“It’s not that bad once you get used to it,” Hunk shrugged, “it’s not that potent.”

“Yeah Keith, it’s not that potent, are you still scared?” Lance kept teasing.

Lance had a way of pushing the right buttons, Keith acknowledged. “I never said I was scared.” Keith pushed the button on the side of his helmet opening his own visor to prove his statement.

Lance smiled, he knew he won this time. At the same time, Keith grumbled to himself knowing that he played right into Lance’s childish game.

Coran, Krolia and Shiro opted to keep their helmets on and closed; Shiro pointedly rolling his eyes at the interaction.

The team made their way back to the lions to fly over to the other side of the planet. The stint back to the lions wasn’t particularly hard but Keith found himself winded once they got there. No one else said anything so he just assumed the others were covering for how tired they felt too.

Coran followed Allura into the Blue Lion greeted by Romelle, Krolia was already climbing into the Black Lion and Shiro was talking to Hunk as they climbed into the Yellow Lion.

“The coordinates in the lions are for the next base,” Pidge notified the crew before taking off.

Keith pulled off his helmet and placed it on the floor as he took a seat. The flight offered a break that Keith didn’t want to admit he needed. It was weird to be this tired but the exhaustion was bound to catch up to him some time or another. He made a note to himself to try to get some more rest.

The squad landed close to the outpost to take it out first. Again it was only sentries. The march towards the main base brought back Keith’s tiredness. By the time they reached the base Keith felt sweaty and weaker than before. They split into their teams and waited to receive the ready signal from all of the teams.

“Team one in position,” Keith announced with a wipe of his brow.

Lance had his focus aimed through the scope of his sniper rifle surveying the surroundings.“You alright, Mullet?” He tried to keep up his teasing tone from before but it wasn’t hard to hear the concern.

“I’m fine, don’t worry about it.”

“I wasn’t!” Lance defended.

“Team two in position,” Coran declared through the headset, cutting the exchange short.

“Team three, what’s your status?” Keith requested.

“Give us a minute,” Hunk answered over the comms in between blasts, “a patrol was out doing a perimeter check.”

The line went quiet while everyone waited with baited breath. Sure they did this all day, everyday but it didn’t make it easier knowing their teammates and friends were in the middle of a battle. The outcome was never guaranteed.

“Team three clear and in position,” Allura broadcast.

“Scouts and team two, go!” Keith ordered.

Pidge snuck through the door and it was a minute before Keith and Lance heard their confirmation of a clear hall.

Lance held the door open and Keith ran in to take care of any unsuspecting sentries that might have popped up.

Unfortunately for the sentries, a patrol turned the corner and didn’t have a second to fire any shots before the first one had Keith’s knife in its face. As it was falling backward, Keith jumped, and in one motion ripped the knife from the first robot and stabbed the second in the chest. Using the lodged knife as an anchor, Keith swung around to kick the last automaton. The sentry stumbled back. Before Keith could fully dislodge his blade, the sentry had a hole in its chest and then one in the head. It fell and Keith whipped his head back to Lance.

Lance smiled. His accuracy was scary and he knew it. Still, after all this time, it amazed his teammates. So a look of surprise every once in a while was to be expected but the expression on Keith’s face was more… confused, wild even.

“Hey, you-” Lance started to ask if Keith really was ok but he was cut off.

“UHHH,” Hunk yelled into the mic, “I might have tripped an alarm?”

Immediately after, sirens started blaring.

“So I tripped an alarm,” Hunk corrected.

“Hunk!” Pidge yelled back, “Ok, I’m going to find a way to a terminal to see if I can shut it down from the inside. Lance and Keith, take the hallway in front of you and turn left at the end, you should be able to meet up with team three. I’m heading there now from my position.”

“Copy,” Lance responded with a quick 360 survey of the area, “On our way.” Lance started forward but he didn’t hear Keith follow. He looked back.

Keith was still standing over downed sentries. Even from a distance Lance could see Keith was breathing hard.

“Keith?” Lance took a few steps towards him.

The black paladin snapped back to reality. “Let’s go,” he pushed past Lance.

Lance jogged to catch up, Keith was already at the end of the hall looking at the two directions, _Had he not heard Pidge?_ Lance thought. “To the left,” Lance answered Keith’s confusion.

Keith grunted as he pushed on. Something was definitely wrong. Keith knew this was more than not getting enough sleep. He had never felt like _this_. It was like there was some sort of disconnect between his mind and his body, he pushed on because that’s what the team needed but the mental effort of making his body move how he wanted was taking its toll. It was frustrating to say the least. As the two of them jogged down the hallway, the frustration melted into plain anger and it was that anger that was fueling Keith. The loud blaring alarm wasn’t helping anything and by the time they reached the end of the hallway, Keith was seething.

Sentries ran out from their docking stations in response to the motion detectors Keith and Lance triggered. Unfortunately for them, Keith was raring to go. The first few went down without issue.

“We have to keep moving!” Lance yelled over the noise of the alarm, Keith’s destruction and his own rifle.

Keith looked over at him, irritated.

Lance never saw the look though because he was focused on the sentries approaching from where they had just come.

“Then let’s go!” Keith growled as he cut down two more sentries to make a path. He ran ahead assuming Lance was following.

A second a later, Lance was there at Keith’s side giving him a sidelong glance. “Are you sure you’re okay?” Lance asked.

“Yes, I’m fine,” Keith pushed himself into an uncomfortable sprint to be out of Lance’s gaze. Every muscle burned and his joints groaned under the exertion. Up ahead, there were sounds of a fight underway. Keith jumped into the fray to the surprise of Hunk who had been the closest.

“K-Keith?!” Hunk stumbled back a few steps stopping his blaster so as to not hit his teammate.

Keith swiftly took down the three sentries that had surrounded the yellow paladin and moved onto the next batch that were about to open fire on Pidge.

“Hunk!” Lance yelled as he fired a shot at a sentry raising from the pile of downed robots.

“Boy am I glad to see you two!” Hunk answered.

Shiro cleared his area before moving to help Allura in her fight. Keith made short work of the two sentries facing Pidge.

“Shiro, Pidge, Hunk go ahead! We’ll finish here,” Lance turned and shot two sentries who had been following him and Keith.

Shiro looked torn but Pidge dragged him away.

Allura and Keith wrapped up fighting the few remaining sentries in the room right before a platoon entered.

Lance moved into action first, “Allura, stand your ground there, Keith get to the other side, I’ll cover from here,” he climbed on top of a box that was in the front of the room and fired a few blasts right down the middle of the foremost squad approaching them.

Keith ran over to the side that Lance motioned towards and lunged at the first sentry his eyes locked on. He rode the sentry to the ground paying extra attention to make sure the sentry’s head took the brunt of the fall. From the lower position, Keith extended his blade to strike the figure on his right. The sentry and the ones next to him were so surprised that Keith could pull his knife making the sentry stumble into its comrades and like dominoes they fell in a chain.

Although they weren’t down for good, it opened up the space for Lance to clear out 5 or so sentries. Lance lost count of how many shots he had fired. The drones looked endless. Lance checked over at Allura and she was using her bayard whip to keep the sentries at a good distance. That was reassuring compared to Keith who was being more reckless than usual, diving right into the middle of the crowds and fighting his way out. Lance watched through his scope, ready to help the man out of the situation he was bound to get into at this rate. There was something erratic in the way Keith was moving, Lance noted. _Was he injured?_ Lance cleared out the stragglers and now it was only the crowds around the two paladins on the ground. Pidge must have gotten to the controls to shut down the alarm because they suddenly stopped.

“Alarms’ off,” Pidge called through the comms, “but there’s no way to know from here if the signal was broadcast to the other base.”

“It was,” Krolia answered shortly.

After a short silence waiting for her to explain further. Coran chimed in, “We’re being engaged from all angles outside!”

“Allura, Lance, Keith what’s your status?” Shiro asked.

“We’re almost clear,” Lance answered.

“Coran, we’re coming to you,” Shiro returned, “meet us outside when you get free.”

“Got it,” Lance confirmed with another kill on Allura’s side of the room. She could handle the rest of them, Lance thought. Another glance over at Keith’s side, he was basically standing on a pile of robot bodies. Lance observed that Keith’s features were sharper, harsher. He had only seen those features once before.

It was on a planet that had a bleak environment and an even bleaker people. Although the planet wasn’t hosting the aggressors, they were Galra sympathizers that had the _super original_ idea to trap the paladins and try to turn them in to gain favor from Galra high command. The team had been literally backed into a corner, fighting for their freedom and lives. Lance remembers Keith’s change. Yellowed, sharp eyes, a snarl that showed his gritted teeth but the change in demeanor was the most unsettling part. This was Keith but a more basic, instinctual Keith that didn’t think about consequences, only survival. They all knew that Keith took his role as leader seriously but when he was like this, it was only life or death. In that situation on that planet, it ended up saving their lives.

This wasn’t nearly as perilous as that time had been. They had this covered, no need for the dramatics, Lance thought until he saw Keith coughing and struggling to breathe in between strikes. He immediately took it back. “Allura, head outside to help the rest of the team,” Lance commanded.

“But what about-” She started to protest.

“Just go, we got this handled and we’ll be out in a minute,” Lance jumped down from his vantage point and started thinning the remaining crowd around Keith.

Blasting his way into the middle, Lance found a worn Keith sweating and swaying where he stood, still somehow managing to swing his sword and connecting with enemies. Although his body looked tired, Keith’s eyes never left their target. Lance finished off the remainders of the sentries. Keith spun at a worrying speed to lock on to Lance. He looked at Lance viciously, like the man in the blue armor was his next target.

“Keith!” Lance shouted more surprised than anything when Keith jumped at him. “Whoa!”

They were in some kind of dance, Keith rushing in and Lance sidestepping to dodge. Lance let his bayard disappear, he wasn’t going to use it. The third time Keith lunged, Lance noticed that even though his features were sharp there was a lack of focus, like Keith wasn’t truly seeing and then it clicked for Lance. Keith would never physically attack a teammate, not like this.

“Listen!” Lance yelled trying to gain the black paladin’s true attention. With a sideways jump to miss the sword swing, Lance added, “Keith, stop!”

Something possessed him to follow the order and Keith paused.

Lance took the opportunity to slide into Keith’s personal space and grabbed the man’s face forcing him to look into his eyes, “Hey, it’s me, it’s Lance!”

~ Keith’s POV

W-what was he doing? His body hurt all over, was he injured? The first thing he noticed was a pair of eyes staring through him. Who? Wait did he hear, Lance? His eyes went wide in confusion at the jolt of realization. Was he just-

~

“It’s ok, you’re ok” Lance offered, seeing the rise in panic. “I’m ok,” he added knowing Keith’s next question was going to be something like did he hurt anyone?

Keith went to look down and realized he couldn’t move his head, Lance was still holding the sides, a bit softer than it had been when he originally grabbed the paladin.

“You’re burning up,” Lance commented, his gloved hands moving, one to the back of Keith’s neck and one to his forehead.

Keith welcomed the cool feel of the space glove and closed his eyes for a second.

“You gotta get back to your lion,” Lance decided.

“What?” Keith jumped out of Lance’s hold. “No, the team-” realizing that they were they only ones in the room besides the mountains of sentry bodies.

“The team is fine,” Lance took out his bayard choosing the blaster rifle for its lighter weight and easy maneuverability.

“We have to get to them,” Keith was already looking for the closest exit.

“No, you need to get to your lion, something’s not right, you’re sick or something,” Lance grabbed Keith’s hand and pulled him to follow.

Not knowing what else to do, Keith followed without protest. He didn’t remember the way, something must have really been wrong.

“Keith and I are going to grab the Red Lion,” Lance said into his comms.

“Good idea,” Coran answered.

“I’m sending our location,” Hunk reported.

“We’ll be there in 5 minutes,” Lance continued pulling Keith along.

“Why not bring Red and Black?” Pidge managed to ask even though it sounded like they were blocking heavy fire.

“Red’s faster,” Lance returned, “And Keith’s sick.”

“Am not!” Keith retorted at Lance like a mature adult.

“Keith’s sick?!” Shiro yelped, you could hear the mortification that he hadn’t realized it sooner.

“I’m not sick,” Keith answered into the comms but his body betrayed him and before he cut the line he let out a vicious cough.

“Lance, get Keith in a lion, now,” Krolia growled through the communicator. Her worry as his mother was understandable.

Lance nodded before he remembered that no one could see him, “Got-”

“And grab his helmet from the Black Lion, do not take off without it,” Krolia finished.

“O-ok.” Lance agreed recovering from being interrupted to be given what seemed like a strange order.

The two boys arrived at the lions parked outside the building, “You heard her, get in, now.” Lance pointed at Red as he took off running to the Black Lion. He didn’t have time to worry if Keith followed the direction because he was jumping over Black’s paw and onto her shoulder to get to the manual hatch. Lance saw the helmet sitting on the floor next to the seat, grabbed it and sprinted out of the hatch towards his own lion.

Red knelt down for him allowing an easy entrance into the cockpit.

Keith was sitting on the floor using the seat as his backrest. He was panting and looked pathetic which was so not Keith.

If it had been any other situation Lance would have thought nothing of tossing the helmet in Keith’s general direction knowing the paladin would catch it with a smirk. Instead Lance knelt next to him, and gently started to pushed the helmet down over Keith’s ears. Keith’s hands came up to ghost over Lance’s, as if he was helping put the helmet on. Once it was in place, Lance pushed the button on the outside that closed the visor completely. “Just hold tight.” Lance pat the top of Keith’s helmet reassuringly as he got up and sat in the chair. “On our way,” Lance told the rest of the crew.

~

With the appearance of the Red Lion, the battle ended quickly. Lance took out the few airships and drew the fire of the larger ground canons. Once those were taken care of, the paladins and crew on the ground could easily take out the foot troops. Lance landed and Krolia entered the cabin. She scanned Keith with the reader on her wrist and then shifted him to lean against her as she waited for the results.

“Is he going to be ok?” Lance murmured, feeling uneasy and like he was interrupting.

Krolia read the diagnostic quickly and then sighed, “Yes, he will be fine.”

“What,” Lance started his question.

“I’m not sure what it is called in your language but basically there is a substance in the air that is highly toxic to Galra, I don’t know why I didn’t think to scan for it before when we noticed there were only sentries” Krolia berated herself.

Lance swallowed thickly. He had been the one who goaded Keith into talking his helmet off. “I’m sorry I put him in danger like that,” it was all he could think to do, to offer Krolia someone else to blame for the situation.

“Thank you for your apology Lance but I hope you learned a lesson,” She smiled softly towards the young boy who winced. “No one was hurt this time. Keith will recover quickly now that his helmet is filtering out the toxin.”

“I did learn my lesson, again I’m sorry Krolia,” Lance offered.

“It’s not me you should be apologizing to.”

Lance looked down at Keith’s slumped form next to his mother. He was asleep but his breathing was much more even and his features were already back to their usual human softness. “I will when he wakes up,” Lance promised.

Everyone else climbed into Red’s mouth and Lance drove low and slow to bring them back to their own lions. By the time they got back to the resting lions, Keith woke back up with a start.

“It’s ok Keith, the fight’s over,” Krolia stood up and steadied him in the cockpit of the Red Lion.

Keith grabbed his helmet on his head and growled slightly at the headache forming behind his eyes. “What happened?”

“We won, of course,” Lance offered.

Keith was dumbfounded for a second and blinked back at the red paladin. “Of course,” Keith repeated slowly not wanting to start a petty fight, “but I meant with me?” He looked at his mom.

“There is a toxin in the air here that is poisonous for Galra, that’s why it was only sentries.”

Keith nodded and continued, “and since I’m half Galra, I was affected…”

“Yeah.” Krolia added, “You should probably go see the others, they are worried and wouldn’t listen to me when I said you were going to be fine.”

“Ok,” Keith shrugged knowing how they get.

The three of them exited the Red Lion through the mouth to see the crew setting up a mini camp. There was a fire roaring and a ring of rocks to sit on near its warmth. Everyone dropped what they were doing to come over to see Keith. Pidge was the closest and fastest and as soon as they were in range, they were scanning Keith with their wrist computer. They held Keith’s wrist to measure his heart rate while the diagnostics downloaded.

“Pidge, I’m fine,” he tried to reason with them, “no need for the check-up.”

“I’ll be the judge of that,” they responded. By now the others were gathered around and it made Keith a little overwhelmed. “Huh, the toxin that Krolia was talking about is called Skatole on Earth and its not usually gaseous. That’s probably why I didn’t think anything of it at first. I’m sorry I didn’t consider your alternative biology Keith.” Pidge dropped his wrist and focused on the readings.

“It’s really ok,” Keith said a little offended at their use of the words “alternative biology” like he was a freak of nature but he knew the sentiment was in the right place.

“And I’m sorry too Keith!” Allura pushed forward a little, “I recognized the smell because as you know we used to work very closely with the Galra and I had learned at a young age about that toxin. I’m sorry I didn’t realize sooner.” She scooped Keith’s hands into her own and brought them between the two of them. It was a very intimate gesture mainly because it was in front of everyone.

“Me too,” Coran offered putting a hand around Allura’s shoulder. “I should have known even more than Allura.”

Keith shook his head, “Allura, Coran it’s ok.”

“Keith, I’m sorry,” Shiro interrupted.

Allura dropped Keith’s hands and they swung down to his sides as Keith raised his eyebrows at Shiro, “Huh?” honestly confused why the man was apologizing.

“I’m sorry.” Shiro repeated, “Besides your mother, I know you best and I should have recognized that you were sick before it became a problem.” He placed a hand on Keith’s shoulder.

“Shiro, really?” Keith asked incredulously. “It’s not your fault.”

“He’s right,” another voice interjected. “It’s my fault.”

Another apology? Seriously? Keith spun to see Lance sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck actually looking quite guilty. “What?” words failed him.

“It’s my fault you got sick,” Lance admitted to himself and the team, “I was the one who made you to take your helmet off, exposing you to the toxin.” Lance looked up at Keith earnestly. “I’m sorry.”

Keith was still a bit flustered from the four other apologies preceding this one. He nodded just wanting this to be over. He added louder, directed at everyone, “It’s fine!”

“No it’s not!” Lance replied not quite as loud to match Keith’s volume but it was stern. “You could have been seriously hurt or even killed,” Lance shook his head clearly trying to shake off the thought. “Just because I was being dumb and trying to get a rise out of you.” Lance offered a sincerely apology to everyone, “I was thoughtless and Keith got hurt but it could have been anyone, I’m sorry.” Lance bowed his head and quietly added, “I’m so sorry.”

~ Lance POV

It really could have been any one of them. Lance wasn’t prepared to lose his friends. He would never be able to live with himself if he was the cause. This was his reminder that space is dangerous not only because they were fighting a war but because there was so much they didn’t know. Lance furrowed his brows as he closed his eyes, a frown set itself on his face and Lance vowed not again, no one else was going to get hurt because of his big mouth. He didn’t get a chance to continue reaming himself because he felt a hand on his shoulder and looked up to see who it was attached to.

Keith smiled at him, “I’m ok,” he looked at the group around them, “we’re ok.”

**Author's Note:**

> Let's not pretend that Keith wouldn't casually throw out in the future that Lance almost killed him. He'll mean it entirely as a joke but it's like an arrow straight through Lance's heart, ouch.


End file.
